We're Going to Cover That In Phase 2

Hurry up and watch this upcoming Frontline on PBS about how “the multibillion-dollar ‘persuasion industries’ of advertising and public relations and how marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives.” It sounds interesting, compelling, slightly scary and yes, I work at a marketing company so there will be a serving of guilt along with this program for me at least.

I’m saying “hurry up and watch” because who knows how much longer PBS will survive in this “New America.” For illustration, here is part of a post that I got on BoingBoing from someone named Molly:

I got a very clear picture of his base constituency when having a discussion over lunch with some co-workers about our favorite children’s shows. I was commenting on how much I liked Sesame Street, and one woman (a very vocal Christian conservative) said, “Oooh.. Sesame Street is too tolerant for me”. To my horror, several other women nodded their heads in agreement. I guess I didn’t even think there was such a thing as too tolerant.

Yikes.